WESTERN JOURNALISM: FBI And Homeland Security Just Issued This Scary Warning To America For 4th Of July

As Americans plan their weekend celebrations, intelligence officials are tracking potential terror threats leading up to the July 4th holiday. One source recently stated that local law enforcement agencies across the nation have received federal warnings instructing them to operate at a higher security level throughout the week.

A joint intelligence bulletin issued by the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicated that terrorists could use the patriotic holiday as an opportunity to stage an attack. No specific threats were mentioned; however, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said his agency will be working with other federal and local departments – as well as the American public – to prevent a possible terrorist act.

“We continue to encourage all Americans to attend public events and celebrate this country during this summer season,” he said, “but always remain vigilant.”

The bulletin came ahead of Monday’s arrest of a suspected ISIS conspirator in Hudson County, N.J. According to WABC, 23-year-old Alaa Saadeh was arrested for allegedly offering his services to the terror network and attempting to pressure a federal witness to lie to the FBI.

A number of other recent terror-related arrests prove America remains a prime target for radical Islam. Johnson pointed out that terrorism is also on the rise in other nations around the world.

While the bulletin focused on Islamic terrorism, however, Johnson also worked in a reference to the recent mass shooting in South Carolina during his recent statement.

“The alleged killer sought to divide us,” he concluded. “instead, his actions appear to have had the opposite effect in South Carolina, where people of different races have come together to denounce the tragedy and mourn those killed.”

FBI And Homeland Security Just Issued This Scary Warning To America For 4th Of July

As Americans plan their weekend celebrations, intelligence officials are tracking potential terror threats leading up to the July 4th holiday. One source recently stated that local law enforcement agencies across the nation have received federal warnings instructing them to operate at a higher security level throughout the week.

A joint intelligence bulletin issued by the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security indicated that terrorists could use the patriotic holiday as an opportunity to stage an attack. No specific threats were mentioned; however, DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said his agency will be working with other federal and local departments – as well as the American public – to prevent a possible terrorist act.

“We continue to encourage all Americans to attend public events and celebrate this country during this summer season,” he said, “but always remain vigilant.”

The bulletin came ahead of Monday’s arrest of a suspected ISIS conspirator in Hudson County, N.J. According to WABC, 23-year-old Alaa Saadeh was arrested for allegedly offering his services to the terror network and attempting to pressure a federal witness to lie to the FBI.

A number of other recent terror-related arrests prove America remains a prime target for radical Islam. Johnson pointed out that terrorism is also on the rise in other nations around the world.

While the bulletin focused on Islamic terrorism, however, Johnson also worked in a reference to the recent mass shooting in South Carolina during his recent statement.

“The alleged killer sought to divide us,” he concluded. “instead, his actions appear to have had the opposite effect in South Carolina, where people of different races have come together to denounce the tragedy and mourn those killed.”

AMENPER: Miami Marlins

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re aware that the Miami Marlins are currently 31-46 with one game left to go in the month of June.

The optimist would say a very strong second half could put them in the race. However, the team would need to go 50-36 the rest of the way (a .581 winning percentage) just to get back to .500. A pessimist like some of us would say that the Marlins are going to be a strong contender for the last place against the Phillies.

While much of the media had the Marlins as the trendy pick to compete this season, most projections systems had them as an approximately .500 team, suffice to say, the Marlins have been a disappointment. You, know this. As things stand right now, record wise, this team needs to ready itself for next season. With Giancarlo Stanton being out until August, that is even more true.

But after half a season of being one of the worst teams in baseball, two months of Stanton and ace Jose Fernandez is not going to matter very much. The Miami Marlins have players that have drawn interest and will be free agents after this season. So, of course, they should be sellers, but, are the players the problem?.

This team, which was supposed to contend after being upgraded, has been incredibly bad. The Marlins have been terrible by both run differential and Base-Runs: their run differential says they should be a 34 win team while their Base-Runs says 36 wins is appropriate for them.

They haven’t been good. They definitely aren’t a playoff team. After surrendering a boat load of young talent to go all-in on this season, being a true talent the results are not here..

A change is needed, it is not which players should we change, we have tried this before and it hasn’t worked..

This is a suggestion, instead of changing players let’s change he ownership and the management.

Let’s make a deal with the New York Yankees, we can give them Jeffrey Loria for Hal Steinbrenner and Dan Jennings for Joe Giraldi, to make the deal to look better we may give them as an incentive free of charge our president David Samson, if they consider the deal with Samson still “short” we may give him Billy the Marlins

Jorge A. Villalón

By Mimi Whitefiel

mwhitefield@MiamiHerald.com

The United States and Cuba have reached agreement on reestablishing diplomatic ties and opening embassies in their respective capitals and the White House is expected to make a formal announcement Wednesday morning, a senior administration official said.

“We expect President [Barack] Obama and Secretary [John] Kerry to address this publicly tomorrow morning,” the official said Tuesday.

The United States and Cuba broke off diplomatic ties on Jan. 3, 1961 after relations progressively worsened after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, and the two countries have spent most of the last five decades locked in an acrimonious relationship that has included the U.S. trade embargo against the island and the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion.

But on Dec. 17, Obama and Cuban leader Raúl Castro announced a new era of U.S.-Cuba relations. Since then there have been four rounds of U.S.-Cuba talks to pave the way for resumption of diplomatic ties and opening of embassies.

Because the two countries haven’t had formal relations, interests sections in both countries have handled consular affairs and other issues that come up between the two nations. Both interests sections are housed in the former embassy buildings of each country.

The administration must give Congress at least 15 days notification of its intent to open an embassy. Presumably, the clock would start ticking after the president makes his Wednesday announcement.

South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said she had heard the reports about an embassy announcement and faulted the State Department for not speaking out more strenuously on human rights violations on the island.

“There was little doubt that the Obama administration would pursue its goal of opening an embassy in Cuba no matter the sad reality on the ground,” she said. “Since Obama’s December 17 announcement, the State Department has failed to forcibly condemn the increase of repression on the island now that the Castro regime feels emboldened to continue its attacks against the Cuban people.”

She called opening an American Embassy in Havana “just another trivial attempt for President Obama to go legacy shopping.”

But Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, said she welcomed the embassy news: “This is a major step forward, and a necessary step forward.”

Despite strong opposition to the Cuban opening among a bloc of mostly Republican lawmakers, Klobuchar said the administration has the authority it needs.

Klobuchar is a sponsor of bills to lift the trade embargo and to lift all restrictions on travel to Cuba. She said support for both bills is building. “The momentum is on our side, and I do believe it’s going to happen. I just don’t have a crystal ball to tell you when,” Klobuchar said.

Scott Walker Set For Second Showdown With Unions

Wisconsin unions Monday are once again attacking Republican Gov. Scott Walker, this time over a proposed budget that may result in cuts to tenure for state college professors.

With the upcoming budget session, the Wisconsin Joint Finance Committee is expected to propose a plan to reform the University of Wisconsin System. While it is not yet finalized, unions warn the plan will cut $250 million in funding and will remove academic protections for professors such as teacher tenure.

This latest union battles comes at the heels of a likely announcement Walker will run for president. With his previous labor reforms, unions will likely become one of his main advisories.

“Today’s move by JFC Republicans to pay for Scott Walker’s tax breaks for his wealthy donors by slashing public education is shameful,” Eleni Schirmer, co-president of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, said in a statement. “These cuts will devastate a UW System that has already been cut to the bone and beyond in previous years.”

When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.

It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably — probably — from the Middle East.

Now, it’s entirely possible — probable, even — that NBC was looking for a way to formally separate itself from Trump during his presidential bid anyway. (See if they refuse to work with him again in say, 2017, or so.)Ratings dropped forThe Celebrity Apprentice’slast season, and the show had spent two years off the air.

But are we really at the point where Trump’s uncouth assessment of illegal immigrants is enough to get someonepersona non gratain network television? Is it a jerky thing to initially describe the 5.9 million or so Mexicans who entered the United States illegally as “people that have lots of problems” and “rapists”? Sure. But a lot of people on television say jerky things all the time.

And before anyone says “Trump said all Mexicans are rapists!”, note his very next sentence is, “some, I assume, are good people.” Some may find that condescending, but he at least acknowledges his preceding statements paint with too broad a brush.

Trump is speaking hyperbolically, but he’s doing so about a real problem some would prefer to ignore. From theFBI’s 2013 report on gangs:

Immigration violations also present a significant challenge to law enforcement in the region. In many cases, gang members who commit criminal activity in the region are not US citizens nor lawful permanent residents. Once deported, gang members attempt to reenter the United States illegally in order to rejoin the gang and engage in criminal activity. [Customs and Border Protection] survey respondents indicate in some southwest border sectors, the percentage of non-US citizen gang members was as high as 80 percent.

And then there’s the conversation going on in the rest of the country, which probably includes tons of comments other people would find offensive — from hypersensitive social-justice warrior types to folks who bristle at the F-bomb to people who tire quickly of other people’s inane ramblings.

When somebody sufficiently high-profile speaks in the “rest-of-America” language long enough, it’s just a matter of time before they say something the progressive aristocracy deems “beyond the pale” and requiring economic censure in the form of firing, not just social censure in the form of “what a jerky thing to say.” The pale is getting awfully small these days. In progressive aristocracy America, it’s ipso facto xenophobic to point out that quite a few violent criminals enter the United States across our insufficiently guarded borders.

Trump speaks the “rest of the country” language. For those of us who don’t think terribly highly of him — I’d like to see the deep thinker really lay out how he’s going to makeMexico pay for a border wall — Trump’s bluntness and directness is one of the most likeable traits.

O’REILLY: OK. Now, the 15 million illegal aliens already in the United States. What do you do with them?

TRUMP: I think right now you’re going to have to do something and, you know, it’s hard to generalize. But you’re going to have to look at the individual people. See how they’ve done. See how productive they have been. See what their references are and then make a decision.

O’REILLY: And then make a decision. All right, on case by case. It’s going to take a long time and a lot of people.

TRUMP: A long time, but, you know, you have some great productive people that came in.

O’REILLY: No doubt.

TRUMP: And then you have some total disasters that probably should be in prison.

That’s not quite endorsing a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants, but that’s not really ruling it out, either.

Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters last month that the memos about Libya she received while secretary of state from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime adviser whom the Obama administration had barred her from hiring, had been “unsolicited.”

But email records that Mrs. Clinton, according to officials briefed on the matter, apparently failed to turn over to the State Department last fall show that she repeatedly encouraged Mr. Blumenthal to “keep ’em coming,” as she said in an August 2012 reply to a memo from him, which she called “another keeper.”

The missing email records — nine complete messages and parts of six others — were discovered after Mr. Blumenthal turned over to the House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks his own batch of Libya-related email correspondence with Mrs. Clinton.

Angered that the State Department had not already provided it with some of those emails, the committee asked the department whether it had received them from Mrs. Clinton. The department determined that it had not received all or part of 15 emails.

In response to an intelligence memo Mr. Blumenthal sent Mrs. Clinton in July 2012, she said: “Greetings from Kabul! And thanks for keeping this stuff coming!”

And, responding to a March 2012 memo, she wrote: “This strains credulity based on what I know. Any more info about it?”

Mr. Blumenthal replied, “Will seek more intel.”

A spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, Nick Merrill, said, “The idea that this runs counter to the assertion that the emails were unsolicited is a leap.”

Campaign insiders say the release on Jeb2016.com will illustrate the Republican presidential candidate’s commitment to transparency and the high level of disclosure they say was Bush’s standard as Florida’s first two-term GOP governor.

Until now, former U.S. Senator Majority Leader Bob Dole held the record for such disclosures, having released 30 years of tax returns, but that was 20 years ago. Since then, Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain each released two years of tax returns, while now-President Obama released seven years of returns.

Hillary will say she’s released her tax returns, but the real issue is the books of the Clinton Foundation and its many, many ties to lots of powerful interests.

The Obama Administration has produced internal directives gutting immigration enforcement, including a directive thatprohibits law enforcement from detaining and deportingconvictedcriminal illegal aliensunless they committed narrowly defined heinous crimes. With their hands now tied, ICE is now releasing tens of thousands of criminal illegal aliens.

The “Davis & Oliver” bill is named after law enforcement officers murdered by an illegal alien with a criminal background. The bill willend the mass release of criminal aliens and ensure the consistent and uniform application of federal immigration law.

BREAKING: The Supreme Court Just Made A HUGE Move That Threatens Dem Campaign Cash

In a surprise move that could pose a major threat to organized labor — a key Democrat constituency that supports liberal candidates with vast amounts of campaign cash — the U.S. Supreme Court has just said it will hear a controversial case out of California. USA Todayreports that the justices have agreed to consider the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, “challenging the requirement that teachers contribute to unions, even if they don’t join them or agree with their positions on issues.”

The USA Today article points out that, in the most recent case to come before the court in which the forced union dues have been challenged by people who don’t support what those dues have paid for politically, a sharply divided court ruled against the union policy.

“…the court ruled 5-4 along ideological lines that home-care workers in Illinois do not have to pay dues to public employee unions. The workers said the unions lobbied the government, often on issues the workers oppose — thereby abridging their First Amendment rights.”

In the California case that will bring the critical issue back before the Supreme Court in late fall, two lower courts have upheld the demand by the California Teachers Association that teachers contribute to the union, even if they don’t belong to the union or don’t agree with the group’s position of issues.

The Los Angeles Timesarticle on the high court’s taking up the case notes just how important the eventual outcome of the matter could be to public employee unions and the causes, candidates and campaigns they support with massive amounts of money. What makes this pending decision even more critical is its timing as the 2016 election cycle moves into high gear.

The case is likely to be seen as crucial test of public employee unions, which have under political attack in several Republican-led states. The outcome may well have a political impact as well, because these unions have been reliable supporters of the Democratic Party.

The Times coverage notes just how much money the public-sector union collects from each member and non-member. “The lawsuit said full dues for teachers who join the union are about $1,000 a year, but non-members still have to pay about $650 on average for their share of the cost of collective bargaining….”

WESTERN JOURNALISM: TRUMP JUST RESPONDE TO NBC… CUTTING TIES WITH EPIC TAKEDOWN.

He stood by his previous comments while denigrating the corporate character of his former network partner.

Years ago, NBC and Donald Trump formed a partnership that produced the Miss USA and Miss Universe Pageants as well as the successful seriesThe Apprenticeand its spinoff,Celebrity Apprentice.Since announcing his presidential candidacy, however, the professional relationship has strained to the point of dissolution.

Trump faced backlash over recent campaign statements critical of America’s broken immigration system. The criticism led to Spanish-language cable network Univisionoptingnot to air content from the Miss Universe Organization. News broke Monday that NBC decided to follow suit and cut all ties with the real estate mogul.

At NBC, respect and dignity for all people are cornerstones of our values. Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump.

The reliably outspoken Trump, however, quickly responded with a statement of his own. In it, he stood by his previous comments while denigrating the corporate character of his former network partner.

“As of today,” the statement began, “Donald J. Trump is no longer affiliated with NBC. Mr. Trump stands by his statements on illegal immigration, which are accurate. NBC is weak, and like everybody else is trying to be politically correct – that is why our country is in serious trouble.”